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To the industrial rhythms of Public Image Limited’s electro post-punk “The Order of Death,” Marc Jacobs sent a battalion of models stomping around the New York State Armory with feet clad in covetous incarnations of corrugated-sole utility boots. While each wore a clean-cut luxurious ensemble rendered in brushed silk cashmere, smooth leather, felt, or sumptuous velvet, the largely voluminous silhouettes—calf-length balloon skirts and loose, workman-inspired pants and parkas (which for the most part lacked embellishment)—gave a definitive nod towards the pared-down workwear aesthetic of the Russian Constructivist era; an acute about-face from the fluorescent-soaked athleticism of spring.

It’s possible that this more somber attitude was a reaction to the uncertain social climate that currently holds sway in post-recession Europe and beyond. But even if that is the case, the message here was unostentatiously optimistic: Suit up and protect yourself, and do it, if not with an army boot, then with a type of chunky slip-on flat, outlined in gobstopper-size bronze studs that could wipe out a ballet slipper with a half-hearted kick.

After all, let’s not forget this is an M by MJ collection, which means no matter Jacobs’s starting point, the end result will always brandish a kooky type of beauty and a keen sense of wit. That was conveyed here through oversize baby-doll–meets–peasant frocks, color-blocked skirts with army-knife-sharp concertina pleats, and military-worthy outerwear cut from blanket-soft Shetland furs, which together prevented anything in this formation from toppling too far into austerity. Furthermore, with such tongue-in-cheek color titles as pavement gray, aluminum, prairie indigo, and a faun-like quicksand hue, it is clear that what Jacobs is offering his loyal acolytes for fall—whether in offhandedly cool day wear or party-ready, anti-cocktail dresses—are utilitarian clothes for life in the urban jungle.